jeadigitalmedia.org

It Starts Here

Adrienne LaGier — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 11:25:04 +0000

It all starts here. The motto of our fall high school journalism conference in Minneapolis was spot on. My journey to become a member of CNN Fit Nation’s Lucky 7 Triathlon team started in a Millennium hotel room on Sunday November 20th, 2011.

Every moment during the trip, I was obnoxiously checking my phone to see if the results were in for National Board Certification. When NBPTS finally let me on to their site Sunday morning and I saw that my two + years of portfolio work and test taking scores added up to the magical passing number, tears flowed.

And through the tears of joy, there on the television screen was Dr. Sanjay Gupta and his “Six Pack” triathlon team from last year. I had seen the same segment the day before as I was getting ready for sessions, but this time through a new lens.

One aspect of my life that I have been neglecting for seven years has been my health.

So I guess you could say I felt like Sanjay was speaking to me through that television screen when he was asking for applications for this year’s triathlon team. The least I could do was try.

On the way plane ride home back to Maryland, I drafted my reasons why CNN should pick me.

In my advanced journalism yearbook classes, I showed the other CNN 6 pack video entries and we dissected them. Which told the best story? Who did we think would be picked? And then… how could we put together an entry to match my narrative that would blow all of the others out of the water? I also emailed the links to the video entries to our digital media guru friend, Jake Palenske, who specializes in well… everything.

He said, “I took a look at the application videos that have already been submitted, and I gotta say… your kids can do MUCH better than that.”

And so we did.

I approached Victoria, one of my yearbook editors taking broadcasting, and asked her if she would like to be in charge of the overall vision and production of the three-minute video clip. She agreed, and the storyboarding began.

She created a list of whom we should interview, shot the film, and then re-shot it after we discovered another staffer had a HD camera. She had fun scolding me for using too many words to say something simple.

On December 13th, Victoria uploaded the completed video and my narrative. About ten minutes after it was live on CNN, my phone rang. I ignored the out of state call and checked my email. A CNN Medical Producer just watched my video and wanted to make sure the September wedding I referenced in my video wasn’t the same weekend as the Malibu triathlon. I reassured him the dates didn’t conflict, and freaked out when he signed his email “talk soon”.

My students then spent the week blowing up Facebook by donating their statuses to my cause. After soliciting help for my cause on the JEA List Serv, you, my JEA colleagues watched the video and helped spread the word.

On Wednesday December 22, I received an email from the CNN producer saying he would like to see what I looked like on film and could we schedule a Skype session for the following day. I had an inkling Sanjay would be surprising me the next day, but as soon as he popped on the screen at 3pm on Thursday December 23, the water works began on cue.

In the month that has passed since I got the surprise Skype call from Sanjay Gupta, Bryan Farley has made me feel like I am part of the JEA digital media community. His graciousness and conscious effort to reach out has made me feel like I have something of value to contribute. I hope he’s right so I can emerge from the lurking shadows of the list serv.

This past week, my students and I planned a “It’s 0K to 5K” race to help fund our CSPA trip, summer camp at the University of Miami, and even the fall NSPA conference in San Antonio. I’ve also struggled through creating trihardadrienne.com this past month and hope my lessons learned can help guide my students as we create our yearbook website that we were motivated to create after attending Sarah Nichols presentation at JEA this fall. I’m also blogging now for CNN on a weekly basis.

How else would you suggest that I continue to involve my students in my journey?

Do you have any questions for me? What has been most difficult? Have my students enjoyed the process?”

Audio is just as important, if not more, than the video.

Don Goble — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 14:30:39 +0000

Imagine interviewing someone who just told you one of the most heart-warming stories you have ever heard. Or, they just told you a profound idea that will make the sound bite Hall of Fame.

Now imagine going back to the editing room and realizing the microphone didn’t work. Forgot the headphones too, huh?

Even worse, you didn’t use a microphone, and the background noise is drowning out this amazing sound bite.

Are you listening? Audio is just as important, if not more, than the video. I will watch a poorly shot video, at least for a while, if the audio is clear. However, I will NOT watch a perfectly framed video, if I can’t hear the audio.

Videomaker has a fabulous series of video tutorials for broadcast journalists. I show this tutorial, “Audio for Video” each and every semester to new and experienced students alike, about the 4 essential steps of capturing audio for your videos.

And remember, ALWAYS use a microphone to capture interviews and ALWAYS use headphones to know what is recording.

Good luck.

Starting Video from Scratch: Equipment

Matt Rasgorshek — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 14:25:49 +0000

It’s always fun to get the best and coolest gear. Any time I can lay my hands on the latest and greatest, I try to snatch it up. That said, you don’t necessarily need top of the line gear to produce quality video. What you need is good, solid gear that can withstand the beating that 15-18 year olds will eventually put on your equipment. Note – the following is what works for our program. I have not been asked to endorse anything, but if Apple or Canon is listening…..

That said, here are some video production essentials:

Camera - Fairly self-explanatory, right? You need a camera to do video. But what kind should you buy? High def vs. standard def…it really doesn’t matter. What really matters is finding a video camera that is compatible with your editing software. For example, we shoot on Canon Vixia HD cameras because they shoot in a format that Final Cut Pro can recognize. When choosing a camera, look under “specifications” and find out what video format it shoots on. Then, cross reference that with your editing software to see if it’s compatible. Personally, I would also suggest looking at cameras that shoot on SD/SDHC card versus miniDV tape or hard drive. MiniDV tapes get eaten and hard drives crash. And they never do it over a holiday break, either. Also, buy a camera that has a jack for external microphones. What We Use: Canon Vixia line of HD cameras.
Tripods/Tripod heads – Buy a tripod. Don’t even think twice about it. It’s the one piece of equipment that the pros from the amateurs. The rule of thumb with tripods is “you get what you pay for”. If they offer a free tripod, expect that type of quality. Buy one with a fluid head and a leveling bubble mechanism. Essential for beginners. What We Use: Manfrotto tripod kits. They’re durable and lightweight.
Microphones – It’s always good to have at least one set of microphones. We use wireless mics because they are a lot more versatile. More expensive isn’t necessarily better in this case. Also, make your students wear headphones when using the mics. I bought some big, obnoxious headphones for the room just in case my students forgot theirs. Why big and obnoxious? So they don’t disappear. Haven’t lost a set yet. What We Use: Senheiser wireless mics and Azden wireless mics. Senheisers have been good to us, but the Azden’s – while not as many bells and whistles – are a lot more durable.
Cases – If you’re going to plunk down this much money on equipment, you need to protect it. Buy cases for everything. Prices range from $10 to $200, but you’ll need to budget for cases. Trust me. What We Use: We have a hodepodge of cases. Case Logic, Porta Brace and Kata are all in my equipment room.
Editing Software – This is usually the part that generates the most discussion. There are a lot of options out there. iMovie, Final Cut, Adobe Premiere, Avid, Windows Movie Maker are just some of the more common ones out there. For something as important as this, we’ll devote another post to it.

TIP: When you buy all of this equipment, make sure you have a decent method to keep track of it. With all this technology at my disposal, I still go old school have the kids sign it out on a spreadsheet. They have to get my signature before it leaves. We also name every piece of equipment. It’s corny, but the kids love to name new equipment (e.g. – Fire, Snooki, Swine, JT, Carmen San Diego, Owen, etc.). I’ve found it’s a lot easier to ask where “Fire” is versus “Camera #3″.

Cover It Live Chat: Social Media and the High School Journalist – Incorporating Social Media Into Your Program

Aaron Manfull — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 23:01:06 +0000

The digital media committee hosted the first in a series of JEA’s Cover It Live chats. The event was Thursday, Jan. 26, 2012 and covered a variety of topics from how to use social media if your school blocks the sites to best practices with the different social options. If you didn’t get a chance to check it out or if you’d like to scan back through the night’s chat, you can find the event in its entirety here.

The chat was hosted by Wendy Wallace of the Poynter Institute, Jesse McLean of Watterford Kettering High School, and Aaron Manfull, the JEA Digital Media Committee chair and 2011 DJNF High School Journalism Teacher of the Year.

The JEA Scholastic Press Rights Commission will lead the next online chat at 3 p.m. on Monday, Jan. 30. If you need updated information on policies for print and social media or have questions about legal or ethical issues on your staff, this will be a chat you won’t want to miss. You can find the chat on Monday here.

Join Us For Tonight’s Cover It Live Chat: Social Media and High School Journalism

Aaron Manfull — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 21:43:30 +0000

Join the Digital Media Committee as we host the first of JEA’s weekly Cover It Live online chats. Our discussion will center around high school journalism and social media.

The chat will take place tonight at 7 p.m. CST.

This is an online chat for anyone. If your staff is already online and social we’d love to have you join. If you’re looking to go that route but just haven’t pulled the trigger, you’d be a great addition as well. Heck, if you’re scared of social networks and stay as far away as possible, we’d love to have you join too to give you a little different look at them.

It’s a come one, come all invite to participate in an online chat about why you should incorporate social media into your program and some tips will be offered on how to do it successfully.

The chat will be from 7-8 p.m. CST. The chat will take place at this link or you can find it here on the digital media site. You don’t need to install any extra software and it costs nothing to be a part of this. All you need is internet access. While we are looking forward to a good discussion, feel free to come to the page and just watch the chat as it happens. If you can’t make it, the chat will be archived for later viewing.

This is not a voice chat. It’s all typed and plays out live on screen. Moderators ask and answer questions. Participants can ask questions throw in their two cents on others’ questions, or just sit back and learn from the discussion. If you’ve never used Cover It Live before you can get a feel from the front and backends of the program through a great set of tutorials posted last week on JEADitalMedia.org by some of Jim Streisel’s students. Streisel is the adviser at Carmel High School in Indiana.

Don’t worry if you’ve never used it before. I swear it’s easy to use and you can just come and watch if you don’t want to ask a question.

So, please come join Poynter Institute’s Wendy Wallace (@wendywwallace), Waterford Kettering High School’s Jesse McLean (@JMcLean3) and me Aaron Manfull (@manfull), JEA’s Digital Media Chair, for the first of what is going to be a great series of chats by JEA commissions and committees in the coming weeks.

Look forward to having you all join us tonight.

Recommended Places to Buy WordPress Premium Themes

Aaron Manfull — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 17:02:24 +0000

In a previous post I looked at five reasons premium themes were better than their free alternatives. Today, I want to give you a few places to go to where I and others have had success with finding premium WordPress themes.

The four places I’ve used quite a bit and had success with are:

Rockettheme.com
Press75.com
Solostream.com
WooThemes.com (also recommended by @Matt_Raz and @patrickjpowers)

I’ve purchased premium themes from each of these sites and had luck. Theme documentation is included and forums are readily available with answers I can’t find in the documentation or figure out on my own.

WPZoom was another one recommended on Twitter by @julietiedens, I just haven’t had any experience with it but it looks to fall in line with those I’ve listed above.

Do you have any recommendations of your own? Like one of those listed above. Would love to hear in the comments below.

Are you pregnant or a CNN Triathlete

Bryan Farley — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 00:58:17 +0000

During the discussion to my last post, Holly Soboroff mentioned that “many people feel like they have nothing to contribute to the conversation, or that their comments aren’t welcome, or they just would rather not speak up for whatever reason.” Holly posed many other questions about whether people, and women in particular, might choose to remain silent. One of our JEA members might provide a good role model for more active participation. For many years, Adrienne LaGier probably resembled Holly’s comments.

Adrienne LaGier is a JEA member at Northern High School in Owings, Maryland. A few months ago, another Northern HS teacher confused Adrienne with a teacher who was eight months pregnant. The confused teacher asked Adrienne about her pregnancy. Adrienne has not been pregnant for about 8 years.

The story motivated Adrienne to change her life. With the help of her students, she created an awesome multimedia video. Adrienne submitted the video to CNN and Dr. Sanjay Gupta. CNN selected her and six others to join the CNN Triathlon Challenge Team. You can see her video here. Adrienne is inspiring. She has demonstrated how a teacher can influence people by revealing vulnerabilities. She also included her students on the educational journey. Oh, and then there is that CNN thing.

Adrienne has agreed to share her lessons here on JEA Digital Media. Would you like to follow her experiences? Do you want to know more about her visits to Atlanta?

Do you want to support one of our own?

Finding Story Ideas and Successfully Preparing for your Student Television Show

Don Goble — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 14:30:03 +0000

Finding story ideas for our monthly student television broadcast is quite easy for me.

“But you’re the teacher, Mr. Goble. You know it all,” say my students.

Right, “I know it all.” But seriously, finding great stories to tell for your high school television show can be very simple. Here a few ideas to get your students started.

Take initiative

Keep your eyes and ears open; listen to what your friends are talking about.
Watch or read your daily school morning announcements.
Read everything you can get your hands on; get story ideas from other newspapers, magazines, or any online news or television source.
Think of a youth angle to a current local or national news story.
Research a subject that interests you and ask yourself, what you would like to know more about.
Talk to people, your friends, teachers, principals, community members, and parents to find out what is important to them.
Check out videos online, such as SchoolTube.com, to see what other students are producing.

Now your students have some ideas, but how do they begin?

Preparation = Success

Begin collecting articles on your subject.
Talk to friends, classmates, or anyone in your community about the subject you selected for input and insight.
Contact agencies or associations with interest, or professional knowledge, in your subject area.
Create a list of people you want to interview; cover both sides of the story by interviewing people on both sides of any issue.
Collect statistics, reports, press releases, or any information you can obtain to use as background material.
Go out and do it! We learning by doing, not listening to others tell us how to do something. (Which is kind of what I just did….okay NOW go out and do it!)

What else would you include to the lists? Feel free to add any other items in the comments section.

Blogging Rights and Responsibilities

Michael Hernandez — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 05:25:40 +0000

Thanks to a Creative Commons license from photographer Håkan Dahlström, I'm able to use his work in this blog post without violating his rights--or the law.

With all of the talk recently about PIPA and SOPA legislation clamping down on a free internet, it’s a good time to review our rights as online student journalists as well as our responsibilities.

Both laws aim to restrict copyright violations with comprehensive rules about what can and can’t be published/downloaded online. The criticism of these laws has been that they are TOO restrictive and would end up, allegedly, restricting free speech and legitimate criticism, parody and journalism.

But what constitutes “fair use” when quoting writers, or posting images or video created by others? And conversely, how should you and your staff protect your intellectual property like short stories in a literary magazine, or photos shot by staff photographers?

These resources give you some great guidelines for how and what to publish, especially regarding copyrighted material. Generally speaking, you’re usually in the clear if you use short excerpts rather than long ones, and if you use them for journalistic purposes only (like a film or music review, or parody in a political cartoon, for example). But each situation is unique, so be sure to consult these sources or even a lawyer if you’re unsure about how to proceed.

RADIO TELEVISION DIGITAL NEWS ASSOCIATION

This summer RTDNA posted a great guide to blogging and social media, which offers a lot of useful info for student journalists and advisers.

STUDENT PRESS LAW CENTER

An invaluable resource for all things legal when dealing with student journalism and free speech. They have lots of online guides, including one on fair use and copyright, as well as access to lawyers that you can speak with when the going gets rough or your just want to be sure you’re doing the right thing.

ELECTRONIC FRONTIER FOUNDATION

This organization fights for the protection of a free and open internet. They also have some useful resources including a Legal Guide for Bloggers which covers journalists as well as the average Joe Blogger.

CREATIVE COMMONS

When your staff writes articles, posts photos, video or cartoons, you probably want to protect your unique, hard work and prevent others from using it without your permission or payment. Or maybe you want to share it with the world without restriction. Either way, that’s what Creative Commons allows you to do.

You can choose the extent of protection for your intellectual property so that others may legally let use your work without fear of lawsuits, and spread your work beyond your original audience.

No matter the situation, you should use sound news judgement to guide your decisions when choosing what and how to use someone else’s work: use first-hand sources, attribute your sources, and use only what you need to tell your story. When in doubt, consult with someone more knowledgeable, like the team at the Student Press Law Center.

Happy blogging!

The News and Retractions of Joe Paterno’s Death Told Through Storify

Aaron Manfull — Sun, 22 Jan 2012 12:53:20 +0000

Joe Paterno’s failing health was a topic of conversation on the web Jan. 21. It became the main thing being talked about though around 8 p.m. when numerous news organizations reported that the former Penn State football coach had died. Word spread quickly, and just about as fast, news organizations began retracting their initial reports after learning that Paterno was still alive and in serious condition.

I used Storify to recap a small portion of the evening as it unfolded.

There are a lot of great lessons here. One is obviously showing students how they could use Storify to tell stories of school events. However, there are much deeper lessons here that deal with accuracy and verification of information, social sharing of news, news in the age of ‘Now’, and repercussions for inaccurate work.

I’ll go ahead and embed the Storify below, high school teachers should take note that if you plan to show this in class, you may need to take screenshots or use other alternatives if Storify or any of the secondary links (like Facebook) are blocked at school.

If you are unfamiliar with Storify, here is a Youtube video that gives a good, quick overview. Also, if you are new to Twitter you might want to take a peek at this to help you make sense of some of the Twitter talk you may find confusing.

Connect with Aaron Manfull on Twitter @manfull.